Pro Cycling

2012 End of Season Awards

Bicycling’s pundits pick their top riders, races, and disappointments of the year

bicycling.com

(Photo by Bradley Wiggins won Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie, the Criterium du Dauphine, the Olympic Individual Time Trial, and the Tour de France. (James Startt))

As we move into 2013, it’s the perfect occasion to look back over the 2012 season and recognize some of the more memorable performances and stories from the world of professional cycling. To give us a hand, we asked some of our experts to give out awards. Here’s what they decided.

RIDER OF THE YEAR

Frankie Andreu (team director, Tour Talk host): Peter SaganSagan showed incredible strength and speed all year from the start to the end. He came away with 16 wins, the green jersey, and three stages from the Tour de France. He won not only field sprints, but also races where the climbers were outclassed by the young Slovakian.

James Startt (Bicycling’s European correspondent): Tom Boonen
By winning a third Flanders and a fourth Roubaix, Tom Boonen proved himself to be the greatest rider in the history of the cobbled Classics: better than Rik Van Looy, better than Roger DeVlaeminck, better than Freddy Maertens, and yes, better than Merckx. It was “unprecedented” in a time where such words have become increasingly rare.

Joe Lindsey (Boulder Report, Bicycling contributor): Marianne Vos
Vos went to the Olympics and World Championships as the odds-on favorite and simply emerged as the strongest and smartest rider in the sport. Her win in London, on a technical course in the rain, was one of the most memorable for me from any discipline in years. She made every move she needed to, exactly when she needed to. Simply look at what the woman has done over the past 12 to 24 months: In 2011 and 2012 she won the overall, five stages and the points title at the biggest stage race for women (the Giro Donne); she is reigning World Champion in two very different disciplines (road and ‘cross); and she took the world track title for the scratch race in 2011. With those results, I think it's a convincing argument that there's not a better racer in the sport today, male or female.

Whit Yost (Bicycling race contributor): Bradley Wiggins
As a lover of the cobbled Classics, my heart wants to say Tom Boonen, but my head can’t deny that Bradley Wiggins had a better season overall. Winning the Tour de France as the overall favorite is no easy task, but it cannot be forgotten that Wiggins also won Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie, and the Criterium du Dauphine—three of the toughest and most prestigious weeklong stage races on the calendar. Wiggins also won gold in the men’s individual time trial at the Olympics a little more than a week after the Tour. Boonen’s cobbled win streak was terrific, but Wiggo’s consistency throughout the first two-thirds of the season is much more impressive.